Colombia earthquake death toll rises to 164 as rescue efforts continue

Rescue efforts across western Colombia continued into a second day on Tuesday as emergency workers dug through collapsed buildings and flattened homes, as the death toll rose to at least 164, Reuters reported. 

The initial death toll was 111.

The 7.4-magnitude earthquake tore through Colombia's coffee-growing heartland early Monday.

The quake reduced multi-story buildings to rubble in cities such as Pereira and Cali, and cracked apart one of the towers of ​a historic cathedral in the city of Manizales.

Emergency teams aided by police, soldiers and volunteers worked through the ​night with excavators and, at times, their bare hands, hunting for survivors beneath debris. In Cali, home ⁠to about 2.2 million people, at least 85 people were killed.

Dozens of buildings were left leaning precariously or destroyed outright, ​forcing residents into the streets. Several of the top floors of one of the city's hospitals - some dedicated to pediatric care - collapsed ​upon themselves, leaving some patients trapped and forcing some 600 others to be tended to on a street strewn with rubble, hospital director Irne Torres Castro told Caracol television.